Results of Failures Aren't Always Bad
by Draco-Hermy
Summary: Parvati Patil HAS to get to that Christmas party, and the only way to do that is to go with Harry. But when her plan backfires, she finds the results not... too bad. HP IS NOT MINE.


**A/N Hey Guys! This is for the Amortentia Challenge by PrimroseAmelia so I hope I do well!**

Tomorrow was Sluhorn's big Christnas party and I had no one to go with. If I didn't go with anyone, I wasn't going to go at all, because, frankly, I wasn't in the Slug Club. But I knew someone who was, the very someone that I went to the Yule Ball with, in fact. Harry Potter.

I'm Parvati Patil, in case you hadn't noticed, one of the three Gryffindor Girls, and proud of it. But, seriously, if I didn't go to the Christmas party, it didn't even matter what I would _wear._ And that always matters. _Always._

So Harry Potter would be the ideal person to go to the Christmas party with, but how exactly was I going to pull that off? Maybe I would just… ask him. That seemed lame. But it was the first step.

So that day, the one the day before the big Christmas party, I pulled my guts together and walked into the Common Room. Harry was right there, sitting with Ron and Hermione. Hermione… ugh. How did she even become a Gryffindor? She should be in Ravenclaw… and not just because of her brains. People that didn't look good shouldn't be in Gryffindor.

Anyway, I walked right up to Harry and asked him if he wanted to go to the Christmas party with me. Well, not exactly. I asked him if I could talk to him alone for a moment. Ron and Hermione left, thank goodness. Then I asked Harry Potter to the Christmas party.

And he declined.

Well, that plan backfired. But I acted strong. Even when he didn't tell anyone that I had asked him. That stung a bit, but I was also glad that my rejection hadn't traveled all around the school. Yet. Hopefully never.

I couldn't think of any way to get Harry to go to the party with me. Um, except for one thing. I didn't exactly think of it. I had heard Romilda Vane going on and on about some love potion that would get Harry to go to the party with her when we were in the bathroom. So I asked her which potion.

She told me that Amortentia was the most powerful love potion in the world, and one drop of it could make the givee fall madly in love with the giver within moments. That was _perfect._ I wondered where I would find Amortentia, except in Slughorn's office. I don't steal. That's not my thing. I might do the black market, but I don't steal.

So I ordered a bottle of Amortentia from Weasley's Wizard Wheezes, and it came the next day during the mail, concealed in a coughing remedy bottle. This was perfect. I would slip some into a bit of pumpkin juice and offer it to Harry. I would do it later, at lunch! This would all work out great.

A few hours later, I quietly opened the little bottle and sniffed it. It smelled wonderful, like tulips and roses and some other flowers. And it also smelled a bit like Seamus Finnegan. Odd. But it smelled good anyway, and when I told Lavender to sniff it, she smelled something completely different. I forget what, but it wasn't what I smelled.

So I poured all of it (yup, that's right- _all_ of it) into a glass of pumpkin juice. I plucked up my courage and brought it over to Harry.

"Hey, Harry. Do you want some pumpkin juice? I'm not really thirsty," I said, and held out the glass to him. Hermione gave him some look, like "what-did-I-tell-you?" or something, and he held up a hand.

"Sorry, Parvati, I already have some pumpkin juice. Why don't you give it to someone else?" he suggested. I almost swooned, right then and there. He was so nice. But I didn't. I held myself together and walked back to my seat.

"Did it work?" asked an overly excited Lavender.

I shook my head. "It would have, if he took it. But that Hermione warned him not to with her eyes."

"Oh, that's too bad. What are you going to do with it now?" she asked. I wondered… what _could_ I do with a glass full of Amortentia-spiked pumpkin juice?

Then I glanced at Seamus. I had had a crush on him for forever. Should I give this to him? I looked at him again. No. I wanted Seamus to like me for who I was, not because of some stupid love potion.

I pulled out my wand and pointed it at the glass. "_Evenesco_," I said, and the glass emptied itself. Then I did the same thing to the bottle, just in case there was any potion left.

"It's of no use to me now. I just… won't go to the party," I said heavily, and sighed. The Christmas party was going to be great. Too bad I wasn't going.

Right then, Seamus got up and walked over to me. "Hey, Parvati," he said.

"Um, hi," I said nervously.

"Do you… er… want to… um… go to… uh… the Christmas party with me?" The last part was barely audible.

"What?" I asked, hardly believing my ears.

"Would you like to go to Slughorn's Christmas party?" he asked.

"Um, neither of us are in the Slug Club," I said, kind of ruining the moment.

"Didn't you hear? The rules have changed. _Anyone_ can go to the party now!" said Seamus. "So, uh, about-"

"Of course!" I said, jumping up out of my seat and knocking over a glass of water.

Seamus looked relieved.

After lunch, everyone went back to their Common Rooms. It _was_ a Saturday after all. The Christmas party began in four hours. _Four hours?_ I only had _four hours_ to get ready for the most important day of my _life?_

Later, I was all dressed up and waiting in the Common Room for Seamus to come pick me up. I was wearing a spaghetti-strap purple dress with a bow on the side. My shoes were six inch-high purple heels. My hair was it's normal brown. I had just brushed it so that it would be wavy, but not curly. Straighter than curly, but curlier than straight. It had purple highlights in it that could be removed by magic right after the party, and atop that was a purple headband with a purple flower on it. I was wearing purple mascara, too.

Lavender said I looked like a grape.

I walked down the stairs and into the Common Room, where Seamus stood, waiting for me. He was wearing a black tuxedo, but when he saw me, he blushed and pulled out his wand. Seamus changed his tux from black to purple.

Lavender said we looked like two grapes.

And that's how we went to Sluughorn's party: two extremely purple grapes on their way to falling in love.


End file.
